--- title: Death is the thing people soften most: at a funeral nobody says "Gra… — Soft words for hard things: death and dying · tree and pragmatics description: Death is the thing people soften most: at a funeral nobody says "Grandad is dead", they say "Grandad passed away" or "he is no longer with us", to be kind to the family. Who acts: Death, people, nobody, Grandad. A sentence of the lesson «Soft words for hard things: death and dying» of the euphemisms --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/1-death-polite-and-joking/1/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Euphemisms](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/) / [Soft words for hard things: death and…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/1-death-polite-and-joking/) / 1 # Soft words for hard things: death and dying, sentence 1 Death is the thing people soften most: at a funeral nobody says "Grandad is dead", they say "Grandad passed away" or "he is no longer with us", to be kind to the family. **Who acts:** Death, people, nobody, Grandad · **What happens:** be, soften, say, pass away · **To what, where:** thing · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of the lesson «Soft words for hard things: death and dying» of the euphemisms course of Mova's primary school. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Death, people, nobody, Grandad), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = school:euphemisms:001-death-polite-and-joking.lesson:1 # text = Death is the thing people soften most: at a funeral nobody says "Grandad is dead", they say "Grandad passed away" or "he is no longer with us", to be kind to the family. # source = school lesson (ours) # course = euphemisms # lesson = 001-death-polite-and-joking.lesson # annotation = Mova annot: Rust (en) → Haiku 5.5 (medium, Batches API) patches; gates UD 2.18; agreed by treeagree rules (Stanza, Trankit, spaCy trf): R6-punct-agree ×1, R8-pos-agree ×2 1 Death death NOUN NN Number=Sing 4 nsubj _ _ 2 is be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 4 cop _ _ 3 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 4 det _ _ 4 thing thing NOUN NN Number=Sing 0 root _ _ 5 people people NOUN NNS Number=Plur 6 nsubj _ _ 6 soften soften VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 4 acl:relcl _ _ 7 most most ADV RBS Degree=Sup 6 advmod _ _ 8 : : PUNCT : _ 4 punct _ _ 9 at at ADP IN _ 11 case _ _ 10 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 11 det _ _ 11 funeral funeral NOUN NN Number=Sing 12 obl _ _ 12 nobody nobody PRON NN Number=Sing|PronType=Neg 13 nsubj _ _ 13 says say VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 4 parataxis _ _ 14 " " PUNCT `` _ 17 punct _ _ 15 Grandad Grandad PROPN NNP Number=Sing 17 nsubj _ Agree=R8-pos-agree|Haiku=17:nsubj|HaikuPos=NOUN:NN:Number=Sing 16 is be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 17 cop _ _ 17 dead dead ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 13 ccomp _ _ 18 " " PUNCT '' _ 17 punct _ _ 19 , , PUNCT , _ 21 punct _ _ 20 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 21 nsubj _ _ 21 say say VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 13 ccomp _ _ 22 " " PUNCT `` _ 24 punct _ _ 23 Grandad Grandad PROPN NNP Number=Sing 24 nsubj _ Agree=R8-pos-agree|Haiku=24:nsubj|HaikuPos=NOUN:NN:Number=Sing 24 passed pass VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 21 ccomp _ _ 25 away away ADV RB _ 24 advmod _ _ 26 " " PUNCT '' _ 24 punct _ _ 27 or or CCONJ CC _ 28 cc _ _ 28 " " PUNCT '' _ 24 punct _ _ 29 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 34 nsubj _ _ 30 is be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 34 cop _ _ 31 no no ADV RB _ 32 advmod _ _ 32 longer long ADV RBR Degree=Cmp 34 advmod _ _ 33 with with ADP IN _ 34 case _ _ 34 us we PRON PRP Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs 24 obl _ _ 35 " " PUNCT '' _ 24 punct _ _ 36 , , PUNCT , _ 39 punct _ _ 37 to to PART TO _ 39 mark _ _ 38 be be AUX VB VerbForm=Inf 39 cop _ _ 39 kind kind ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 21 advcl _ _ 40 to to ADP IN _ 42 case _ _ 41 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 42 det _ _ 42 family family NOUN NN Number=Sing 39 obl _ _ 43 . . PUNCT . _ 4 punct _ Agree=R6-punct-agree|Haiku=13:punct ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} No stored speech act for this sentence. | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **is a** | present | Death | the thing | | | | | tree rules | | 2 | **soften** | present | people | the thing *not said here* | | | | | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent thing=Patient | | 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | nobody | | | | | | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | | 4 | **is** *in a quote* | present | Grandad | | | | | dead *property* | tree rules | | 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | people | | | | | | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | | 6 | **pass away** *in a quote* | past | Grandad | | | | | away *property* | vn die-42.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient | | 7 | **is** *in a quote* | present | Grandad | | | | | with us; long *property* | tree rules | | 8 | **is** | to-infinitive | people *not said here* | | | | | to the family; kind *property* | tree rules | One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree. **Licence: [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)**, as the whole of Mova corpus 0.4, of which this treebank (the agreed school, `mova-school-agreed-en.conllu`) is part. The lessons were written for Mova's primary school. Sentence `school:euphemisms:001-death-polite-and-joking.lesson:1`. **The tree:** Mova annot: Rust (en) → Haiku 5.5 (medium, Batches API) patches; gates UD 2.18; agreed by treeagree rules (Stanza, Trankit, spaCy trf): R6-punct-agree ×1, R8-pos-agree ×2. **The frames** are read from the tree by Mova's frames reader (`prag`) when this page is built, the lesson read in order, so a pronoun may be resolved from an earlier sentence. See the [release 0.4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/releases/0.4/). - ← previous: [Soft words for hard things: death and…, 0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/1-death-polite-and-joking/0/) - next →: [Soft words for hard things: death and…, 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/1-death-polite-and-joking/2/) - ↑ back to [the lesson](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/1-death-polite-and-joking/)